The Bridge
Die Brücke (1959) is an anti-war film from the Austrian director Bernhard Wicki, which won him international attention as a director and gave him the opportunity to direct the movie The Longest Day (1962). Die Brücke won an Oscar in 1960 as the Best Foreign Language Film, as well as many other international awards – the Golden Globe and the NBR Award for Foreign Films, just to name a few.
The film begins during the last days of the Second World War. Seven school boys, all about sixteen years of age, feel excitement about how close the war is moving toward their town and appear oblivious to the dangers that it will bring, living their lives as close to normal as possible. We get glimpses into the affairs of the heart that boys of this age are prone to, such as the heartache of having a secret crush on an older woman. And then, suddenly, the boys are drafted and receive the news a day later that the Americans are approaching.
The boys’ schoolteacher pleads with their commander to keep her pupils out of the fray, so he assigns them the pointless task of guarding an insignificant bridge, under the command of a veteran sergeant. Unbeknownst to the boys, they are set up to briefly guard the bridge until the enemy draws near and a demolition squad arrives to blow it up. He helps the boys settle in and leaves to get some coffee, but the military police take him for a deserter at a time when deserters were shot during escape. Alone on the bridge, the boys still do not take their situation seriously, until trucks and trucks filled with wounded and maimed soldiers begin crossing their bridge. In the morning, an American fighter plane shoots and kills the youngest among them and the rest take a stand against approaching American tanks, which take their lives one at a time. In the end, only two boys, Hans and Albert, are left.
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